“One of humankind’s greatest and most dramatic cultural extinction events unfolded some 500 years ago when a band of ruthless adventurers, under the leadership of a rogue lawyer, outwitted scheming colonial politicians and blood thirsty cannibal warriors, and out worked a hostile environment in their bid to take down an alien nation. In this adaptation of The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz the author stays true to the old conquistador’s fighter’s view of campaigning in exotic lands beyond the boundaries of The Known World. Part One tells the story of the ill-fated Expedition Of Francisco Hernandez De Cordoba, a little known prelude to the Cortez Expedition, and provides a critical guide and summary of additional reading material for the Conquistador Period.”

And its follow up, The Expedition Of Juan De Grijalva:

“The tale of Bernal Diaz’ experience as a junior officer of three successive expeditions into the frightfully human unknown continues, with the account of Juan de Grijalva’s discovery of the Mexican Empire. While Bernal and the men obviously loved the brave and forthright Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who died of his wounds after the expedition to the Yucatan, and later showed an awed reverence for the world-breaking figure of Hernan Cortez, every episode in Bernal’s account of the expedition that brought the Mexico of Montezuma into contact with the ruthlessly cunning mind of Cortez, gives the reader the sense that the man referred to as ‘Our Captain,’ ‘The General’ and ‘Our Commander’ was a soldier’s soldier — a man as brave as his slain predecessor, who cared about his men more than gain, a man a terrified soldier could count on when the arrows began to fly.”